Europe hotel prices down, says survey

24 March 2006

British tourists are able to take advantage of falling hotel prices in the last part of last year, while Glasgow offered some of the best value-for-money hotel deals in Europe, a survey by Hotels.com found.
Average one-night hotel prices in Glasgow in the period October-December were £64 - an 11% drop on the same period in 2004.

This put the Scottish city only a short way behind the best value-for-money city in the survey - Budapest - where the average price in the last three months of 2005 was £60.

Based mainly on hotels in Europe and the USA, the survey showed that prices also fell at hotels in other UK cities.

The average Manchester price in October-December for a one-night stay was £76 - 4% down on the same period in 2004. Edinburgh fell 5% to £87, Dublin was down 11% at £75 and London also dipped 12% to £81.

Prices rose at some American hotels, with rates in New York - the most expensive city in the survey - going up 13% to £160, and Washington DC rates rising 9% to £110.

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After New York, the highest rates were to be found in Dubai, where average prices rose 2% to £150.

Good value destinations included Berlin and Lisbon (both £61 on average), Hamburg (£64) and Orlando (£68).

Overall, European prices fell 8.7% in the last three months of last year compared with the same period in 2004, while American prices rose 2.3%.

David Roche, European managing director of Hotels.com, told the Press Association that: ‘European prices took a tumble in 2005, so we will watch with interest whether they recover in 2006, and whether spring city-breakers push prices up as they have in previous years.

‘Meanwhile, we will also see whether the Americans can sustain the price increases we saw in 2005 - or whether prices have now topped out and falling demand will force them to come down once again.’‘——-